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We have covered the “Slow Issue” after iPhone 3G is upgraded to iOS 4. There are some interim solutions that may make it running a little bit faster. But for now the best way to solve the slowness issue is to downgrade the 3G iPhone back to iOS 3.1.3.

Earlier in the special event, Apple has shed some light on the issue. With the upcoming release of iOS 4.1 next week, the performance issue is expected to be resolved. The iPhone 3G should run much faster on iOS 4.1 than its predecessor.

Ahead of the public release of iOS 4.1., Lifehacker has performed some basic tests on iPhone 3G to compare its performance on iOS 4.0 and 4.1. As you will see from the video, it showed that iOS 4.1 does improve the overall performance. The iPhone 3G runs much faster and more responsive on iOS 4.1. Here is what Lifehacker mentioned about the test result:

Spell check is a minor but very handy feature that comes with the iOS 4 update. Probably this is the very first time you know about this feature as it is a relatively minor feature compared with those imminent ones (such as multitasking).

The spell check is a system wide feature added in iOS 4 for both iPhone and iPod touch. In other words, you can use spell checking in most iPhone apps (such as Mail, Notes). Like Microsoft Word or Gmail, word that is considered as misspelled is underlined in red. You can tap on the word and iPhone will popup the suggested replacement. By tapping on the suggested word, the misspelled word will be replaced with the correct one.

I do not own an iPhone 3G. Many of my friends who are still using iPhone 3G have complained the performance issue after upgrading to iOS 4. It’s damn slow when iPhone 3G runs on the latest version of iOS. Earlier, I have written up a post about this “Slow Down” issue of iPhone 3G and some possible solutions to speed up the performance.

However, those are just workarounds instead of permanent fix. According to MacRumors, Apple is promising to fix the performance issue in the upcoming iOS update. An iPhone 3G customer sent an email directly to Steve Jobs expressing the frustration over the performance on iOS 4:

Earlier, I showed you a way to fix the “Different SIM Detected” error after hacktivation with the phonebook sim. That method does resolve the error but it involves quite a lot of manual procedures. Probably, iPhone beginners will find it difficult to follow.

Thanks for PushFix to bring us an easier way to fix the issue. You no longer need to manually copy the Lockdown folder via iPhone Explorer as described in step 5 to 10 of the earlier guide. PushFix has released a cydia package called “Hacktivation Patch” that automatically patches a system file on your iPhone.

In late July, we covered a way to activate iPhone with a what-so-called Phonebook SIM card. Early adopters reported that the method worked great and they could easily hactivate the iPhone without an official sim. Lately, however, it was reported the phonebook sim card does no longer work.

What it turn out is that the phonebook sim hack has brought up to Apple’s attention and they immediately developed a fix to block it out. Recently, if you use phonebook sim card to activate an iPhone, you will get a “Different SIM Detected” error and are prompted to connect to iTunes.

That’s really discouraging when you encounter this kind of error. However, someone has already developed a fix to resolve the “Different SIM Detected” issue.

JailbreakMe, the latest version of jailbreak tool, is the first browser-based jailbreak tool. Unlike the earlier jailbreak tools such as Spirit, Redsn0w and PwnageTool, you are not required to download any software for the jailbreak. All you need to is to point the Mobile Safari to jailbreak.com and the entire jailbreak process is done within the browser.

I believe many of you have jailbroken your iPhone using JailbreakMe. But you probably do not know what’s going on behind the “Slide to jailbreak” button.

As you know, the iPhone Dev team has released a browser-based jailbreak tool known as jailbreakme that is capable to jailbreak all models of iPhone including iPhone 4, 3GS (both old and new bootrom) and 3G running on the latest version of iOS (i.e. 4.0 or 4.0.1).

If you have used Spirit before, you should enjoy the one-click jailbreak process. But I can say “Jailbreakme” is even simpler and more user-friendly than Spirit. It is so simple that I wonder if I still need to write a guide for it.

Anyway, to let those who do not familiar with the jailbreak process, here is the step-by-step guide to show you the process.

Before kicking off the jailbreak…

Before you jump to the jailbreak procedures, please read through the points carefully:

As an iPhone 3GS user, I have upgraded to iOS 4 right after Apple announced the public release. So far, I am quite happy with the update. Multitasking, unified inbox, folders and spell check are some of my favorite features. Apple’s engineers also tweaked some of the UIs to improve the responsiveness. Perceptually, I think iOS 4 offers better performance over the previous OS.

However, it is another story for iPhone 3G users. Many users claimed that iOS 4 is not a crappy update. In the Apple’s technical support forum, you can find lengthy discussion (38 pages) about the performance issues of iPhone 3G after upgrading to iOS 4. Users complained the UI is less responsive. It takes 5 seconds to open SMS app. The iBook app runs so slow and even the unlock slider works slower than before. These are just some examples of the complaint. Someone has also posted a video demo on YouTube to show you the slow performance after the iOS upgrade.

The multitasking feature is the most notable feature in iOS 4. If you’re owner of iPhone 4/3GS, you can enjoy this feature after the OS upgrade. However, due to the limited memory and slower CPU on iPhone 3G, multitasking is intentionally disabled by Apple.

But this shouldn’t limit iPhone jailbreaker from using it. With jailbroken iPhone, there are a couple of hacks available via cydia that lets you enable the multitasking feature.

Features Hack

First, it’s a cydia hack called “Features”. The hack lets you enable the missing multitasking feature via Winterboard theme. The package comes with a “multitasking” theme. You can simply enable the theme to turn on the multitasking feature.